Hulan let the implications of that sink in. Vice Minister Zai must have told Lo about this place. She said, "I'm sorry."

"Me too."

Ignoring everything that Suchee had implied, Hulan said, "I'm not used to anyone telling me what to do. I reacted badly."

David sat down opposite her. "What about me? The words I spoke came from someone else. I'm not like that, Hulan."

"I know."

"This is a big change for both of us. Can we just leave it at that? Put this behind us and start again?"

"I'd like to." The relief Hulan heard in her voice embarrassed her. She eyed David to see if he'd noticed. He had. She watched him struggle with what to do next. Would they fight? Would they need to have an American-style discussion of feelings? Or would he stay true to his suggestion of "putting this behind them"? As for herself, she wondered if she'd be able to have a discussion of any sort. She had run away. Admitting that allowed the rest of Suchee's words to skitter around in Hulan's brain like free radicals. She needed time to give them form, to shove them out or accept them. She saw David studying her and realized that, as usual, he was calculating how much she could take before she shut down or ran away. Just as she felt another rise in panic, David seemed to come to a conclusion of his own.

He cleared his throat and said, "Driving out here, I thought about what you said about the factory. If it's true – "

"It is." These words sounded weak, as though she'd lost a great battle. Again Hulan saw the wariness in David's eyes. "I have to trust what you saw," he cautiously went on. "Still, what you've told me doesn't jibe with how I experienced Henry Knight. He thinks he's doing good for these people, paying them well, providing housing. Beyond that, he said several times that his employees haven't had serious injuries. Have you seen anyone else get hurt?"

Apart from her own little scrapes, Hulan had to admit that she hadn't.

"So Xiao Yang's injury and suicide could have been a totally random thing."

"Except that Peanut said that when women get hurt, they disappear."

"For now let's just say they're fired, okay?" David said. Hulan could sense the emotions of the last hour falling away as he became caught up in Knight International's problems. "That still leaves the alleged injuries. To me this suggests a flaw in the design or that some part of the manufacturing process is inherently dangerous."

"Those machines are dangerous."

"But you could say that about every piece of machinery on the planet," he said. "The issue then changes from one about injuries to what happens if an employee gets hurt. And again, I have a hard time believing the Knights are irresponsible employers because I saw the way Henry reacted over that woman's death. I don't think he could have made that up. If he is, then he's putting on an incredible act."

"Maybe Henry doesn't know," Hulan offered.

"That's not plausible. It's his company. He built it. He takes pride in connecting to people, in knowing his products."

"But, David, how often does he come out here?"

"Not as much as he'd like. He's had heart problems…"

"So maybe he hasn't seen every part of the compound. Where are the worst conditions? On the main factory floor and in the dormitory. If he's an honorable man, like you say, then he can't enter the dormitory because it's against company policy."

"Are you defending him?"

"I don't even know him," she replied, "but I have to respect your judgment, especially when it comes to an American."

"But what about the factory floor?"

She thought about this, then asked, "Have you taken a tour of the compound yet?"

"I've seen parts-the Administration Building, a lunch room, the courtyard."

"One of the things I've noticed is that there are several places to meet with large groups of employees. There's an auditorium, but the cafeteria could also be a place to talk to people, not to mention the courtyard. You could easily gather all of the employees out there. Maybe Henry hasn't been on the factory floor because he's never had to. Oh, maybe back on opening day, or maybe he goes to the final assembly room, but otherwise why would he go in there? And even if he did, it would be easy to keep him focused on the product, not the environment."

"Today he said that since the factory moved to China, he's let Sandy and the others handle the manufacturing aspects of the business."

Hulan mulled this over, then nodded to herself.

"What?" David asked.

"What's that American saying? Something about out of sight, out of consciousness?"

"Out of sight, out of mind."

"That's it. The first time I went to the factory, Sandy Newheart took me into the final assembly area. When you're in there, it's huge, with a hundred women working. You don't think about what you're not seeing. When I asked about what was on the other side of the wall, he got upset. What I'm trying to say is that the architecture of that place hides things. No windows. Excellent soundproofing. Doors that seem to go nowhere. Circuitous hallways that hide direction and dimension."

"I'm not sure I follow what you mean. You can't 'hide' a room with seven hundred women in it."

"But you can," Hulan said as she stood up. David followed her outside. They found Suchee and Investigator Lo sitting on their haunches next to the Mercedes, smoking Marlboros.

"Suchee, can you get those plans you showed me before?"

Hulan's friend stood, went out to the shed where Miaoshan had been found, and came back with the manila envelope. Together they went back into the house. Suchee flipped on the single bare lightbulb. Hulan cleared Suchee's shoe project off the table and wiped the dampness away with her forearm. After Suchee pulled out the papers, Hulan riffled through until she found the factory plans. The four of them leaned in, hovering over the main site plan. Hulan spoke in English, pointing out each building to orient the others. Quickly she flipped this plan aside to show the second-story designs and, tapping her finger across the paper, showed those few places where there were windows-all on the second story, all facing out over the wall as opposed to into the courtyard. Then she went to the Assembly Building specs.

"Here's the front door and the lobby. Right here they have a desk. There's a button underneath the desk that unlocks the door into the main part of the building." With her finger she traced the route to that door, and crossed to the foyer on the other side where the women separated into two groups. "If you go right, you eventually end up in the final assembly room. If you go left, you end up in the main manufacturing area." From here she traveled along the serpentine hallways, hesitating before other doors which either led nowhere or to small closets or rooms. She tilted her eyes up to David's. "By the time you've gotten to this main room, you don't know whether you're facing north or south, or where you are in relation to the rest of the compound."